P1racenews AI automatic summary:
Why Alpine went old-school with its F1 aero testing
Alpine surprised many at the Italian Grand Prix by using strips of yarn tufts instead of flow-vis to test their aero components. While flow-vis provides information on the overall airflow structure of the car, tuft testing allows teams to understand how airflow behaves in real-time at specific points on the track. By using high-resolution cameras to focus on the tufts, teams can analyze the direction and behavior of the individual strands to identify airflow changes, pressure variations, and potential stall issues. This method allows for a better understanding of how the aerodynamics are working at different speeds and corners, providing more precise data than flow-vis. The decision to choose tuft testing over flow-vis is essentially a choice between wanting to know what the airflow is currently doing or what it has done in the past.
Source: Motorsport.com
